Orca's Ambition
by Luna the Zekrom
Summary: Orca was familiar with tragedies; she'd read many written by her own mother. But she never imagined she would become one. She had everything: respect, true love, and unstoppable magic in her claws. All she had left to do was take her kingdom's throne and hold on forever. With everything to gain and seemingly no way to lose, how could Orca possibly foresee the disaster ahead?
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hello, everyone! I'm not sure what you were expecting to see from me next, but it was probably either a chapter of my long fanfiction, _Unexpected Places_ , or a new short story about a Wings of Fire character. This is neither.**

 **I've always intended to write a fanfiction about Orca, but the reason I'm doing it now is because I've been reading another story about the oldest SeaWing princess and realizing how different it is from my own headcanon. Regardless of the many differences, it's thanks to Riokodragon's story _Dark Seas_ that I'm writing this now instead of after I finished _Unexpected Places_ , as I originally intended. After reading their interpretation (which is very well-written and compelling; go check it out if you haven't already!), I found that I could not stop thinking about Orca. For the past few weeks, she's been on my mind almost non-stop, and I realized I couldn't focus on writing anything else until I started this. **

**For anyone who might be wondering, Orca's _Ambition_ will be shorter than _Unexpected Places_ chapter-wise, with somewhere 10-15 parts. However, each chapter will be considerably longer than my other story's, meaning that the two probably end up pretty close in word length.**

 **WARNINGS:**

 **Spoilers for _The Lost Heir_ and _Assassin_ ahead, so be aware of that if you haven't read those yet.  
** **The story starts off fairly light-hearted, but it will get considerably darker later on. It will never be gory or otherwise graphic, (or as dark as my Albatross story, _Twisted Mind, Broken Soul_ ), but if you're sensitive to violent material, please proceed with caution.**

 **Now, without further ado, I present to you _Orca's Ambition_.**

* * *

Orca didn't know what to expect from Blister.

She'd heard lots of rumors about the SandWing princess her mother had chosen to ally her tribe with. Some of the gossips said she was the smartest of the dragons vying for the throne, claiming that her scales bore no scars because she manipulated everyone she met into fighting for her while she stayed safely out of the war. Others whispered that she was the most vicious, so skilled a fighter that she had never been seriously injured.

Orca wasn't impressed. Rumors had a way of transforming dragons, turning them from real scales and blood into a caricature of impossible power.

She would know. There were plenty of rumors about _her_ floating around the Kingdom of the Sea, too.

Orca didn't encourage them, per se, but she didn't particularly mind them, either. It could be helpful to have a frightening reputation, however false, follow you around like a giant, imposing shadow.

Not that all of the rumors were false.

 _I heard that she killed three sharks when she was only two years old._

True. The brutes had been nasty, and Orca had been swarmed after she caught a particularly large fish. The sharks had thought that a very small dragon was no match for them, and they'd nearly been right. She'd been fighting for her life that day.

But no one had to know that. Orca didn't talk about the incident often; unlike her mother, she didn't enjoy boasting. But when dragons had asked about it, she'd told them the story, just never from the most truthful angle.

 _I heard that she shipwrecked a fleet of scavengers all on her own._

Also true. After growing up hearing about what had happened to Queen Oasis, she hadn't been willing to take any chances. While Coral's council had been dilly-dallying over what they should do about the ships passing through their archipelago, she'd swam out and smashed her tail against the bottom of the scavengers' boats.

The ships had been tiny and had crumpled easily beneath a dragon's attack.

 _I heard that she slit a dragon's gills open during self-defense class._

Also true. It was a war they were fighting, and the other dragonets needed to see what real bloodshed looked like. The teachers insisted on keeping the classroom a safe environment, so Orca took matters into her own claws.

So what if they called her a savage after that? No one would dare mess with her now. No one would doubt she had the potential to be queen.

Even some of her family members didn't know whether to believe that one. Coral was convinced that her darling Orca didn't have it in her. Gill thought it was an accident. Orca didn't have the heart to tell him otherwise.

 _I heard she's killed a dragon._

Not true, for better or worse.

Not yet, anyway. The throne had her name on it, and if killing her mother was what she had to do to get it, then so be it. But no matter what anyone said, Orca didn't like the idea of murder when order and intimidation could suffice. She let them all believe that rumor because it benefitted her to have everyone fear and respect her, even though it was false and would stay false for some time now.

The one thing that was worth gossiping about was the secret that no one knew.

No one knew that Orca had the tribe's deadliest weapon in her claws, even when they appeared empty. She had animus magic, talons of power. And as far as she knew, no one in the whole kingdom suspected a thing.

Orca had been not quite two years old when she'd discovered she was an animus. Even then, she knew that it was smarter to keep her powers a secret. Her mother wasn't very subtle in expressing her hope that one of her dragonets would inherit the royal gift in time to end the war in Blister's favor, and Orca wasn't keen on the idea of her powers being anyone's secret weapon but her own.

She'd first heard about the magic that her bloodline possessed from a dragonet in her class named Whirlpool, who was fascinated by it and talked about it with anyone who was willing to listen. He hadn't been talking to Orca, but she'd seen his stripes flash the phrase _Talons of Power Ceremony_ and, intrigued, watched the rest of the conversation out of the corner of one sapphire blue eye.

Apparently, Queen Coral had decided to start the test up again, now that the war had dragged on for nearly eight years. At Blister's suggestion, she was looking for an animus whose powers could end it decisively in the SandWing's favor.

 _Maybe Orca or one of her brothers have inherited animus powers,_ the little green dragonet said in Aquatic, his scales flashing the stripes which indicated a hopeful tone.

Orca had always been fond of Whirlpool and his fawning over her.

She'd also rather liked the idea that she might have magic in her claws, so when she'd gotten home from school that day, she read an extensive scroll on the subject and, figuring out that the magic worked by command of voice or thought, tried out a tiny spell, turning the pearls on her favorite bracelet from pink to black.

And it had actually _worked_.

She'd been delighted, and then worried. Worried for two reasons.

One, she had to somehow trick the upcoming Talons of Power ceremony.

Two, the scroll had warned that using animus magic made a dragon go crazy.

Her own ancestor, Prince Albatross, had apparently been an animus too, and he'd ultimately snapped at a welcoming party for SkyWing diplomats. It had turned into a massacre, a bloodbath, in which he'd killed his entire family save for three survivors—his grandchildren. Queen Pearl, Prince Current, and Prince Fathom.

Fathom, also an animus, had evaded the insanity which had overtaken his mentor, but only by refusing to use his magic ever again.

 _Well, that's disappointing,_ Orca thought as she read the passage on the nervous-looking green dragon. _He never did anything great with his powers?_

 _Well, I won't waste mine,_ she decided. _I'll carefully think about any spell I want to cast and make sure it'll be worth the damage to my soul._

The second spell Orca had cast was the one she'd used to conceal her magic during the Talons of Power ceremony.

She'd removed the black pearl bracelet and held it between her claws. She spent a long time just looking at it, thinking of the proper phrasing. The scroll she'd read warned her that vagueness of spells led to unsatisfactory results.

 _I enchant this bracelet to contain my animus powers so that I can no longer use them after this spell,_ she said at last, in Aquatic. _However, I also enchant it to return my powers to me when I put it back on, as if I never cast this spell at all._

Orca hoped that would work. It certainly felt like it had—a faint tingling sensation in her talons that she'd never really noticed before had suddenly disappeared.

She just also hoped she hadn't just given away her powers for good, mere moments after discovering them.

She put the bracelet down on her desk and reached next for a blank scroll. She needed to test whether the enchantment had actually worked. Orca started to light up her scales and then stopped, drumming her claws on the desk. If it hadn't worked, she didn't want to waste this next spell on a pointless test.

 _I enchant this scroll,_ she flashed in Aquatic, once she'd decided what she wanted, _to write in black ink, revealing the names of any animus dragons, including myself, who are currently living in Pyrrhia._

Nothing happened.

She had successfully removed her powers.

Orca fought the sudden urge to put her enchanted bracelet back on and ascertain that her magic wasn't gone forever. But first, she had to fail the Talons of Power test.

"I enchant this coconut," she said dutifully a few weeks later, alongside the three brothers from her hatching, "to float in the air and then return to my claws."

She faked disappointment as, alongside theirs, her coconut did nothing. Inside, she was half-triumphant, half-worried. As soon as the dragonets had been dismissed, she swam back to her room in the Deep Palace as quickly as her wings would carry her and shoved the pearl bracelet back onto her wrist.

The tingling in her claws resumed, and Orca gave a shaky sigh of relief, sending a small cloud bubbles out of her gills. Her spell had worked. She had her powers back.

She promised herself she would never get rid of them again.

But ever since then, Orca had been careful.

Because it had been a good idea, she'd cast the animus-revealing spell again, for real this time, modifying it to appear to be a copy of one of her mother's poems to anyone else who looked at it and to add or subtract any new animus dragons who hatched or died. However, she hadn't cast another spell since then.

The Talons of Power ceremony had happened on her second hatching day.

She was four and a half now, as she sat next to Queen Coral, waiting for Blister to arrive. Her brothers sat on her other side. The four dragonets had finally been deemed mature enough to meet the SandWing princess.

"What do you think she's really like?" asked Gyre, who was sitting beside Orca. His gray eyes were wide and serious, and his blue scales were a shade paler than usual, though he tried his best to look stoic. He was the biggest and stockiest of the royal dragonets, but was more of a thinker than a fighter. "Do you think she's really as scary as they say?"

"You know me," she told him. "I don't think anyone is scary."

"That doesn't help," Gyre sighed.

Orca squeezed his blue talons reassuringly in her dark green ones. "If she tries to intimidate you, I'll sneak a live crab into her dinner so it'll bite her tongue off and she can't hiss another word. Is that better?"

"No," Gyre said, his stripes flashing the pattern for high anxiety. "That's worse!"

Orca laughed. "I was kidding. Mostly."

"Orca!" her brother protested, but she wasn't listening anymore. She had turned her full attention to Coral, who was giving them a disapproving look.

"What are you two muttering about?" the queen asked.

"Nothing important, Mother," Orca responded, with the sweetest smile she could muster. The frown lines between Coral's brows softened exactly as she'd hoped.

"Goody two-claws," Teal muttered, from further down the line-up.

Orca stuck out her tongue at him, but she did it good-naturedly.

The dragonet on the end of the row, Brine, rolled his eyes at the exchange. As the first-hatched, he considered himself as the most mature of the bunch, and above playful antics like the ones the other three participated in.

But despite their frequent squabbles, the dragonets had always been close. It had always been the four of them against the world, ever since they were little, when they'd slowly become aware of the horrors of the war they'd been hatched into and promised to always look after each other.

Their father, Gill, should have been standing on the other side of Coral. But he wasn't with them right now, busy doing some last-minute strategizing with the generals to come up with a decisive plan to present to Blister.

 _I don't see why he and Mother go out of their way to please Blister,_ Orca thought, frowning. She didn't know the full details about the alliance, but it always seemed to her that Coral wasn't assertive enough in dealing with the SandWing princess. She let Blister, who had far less leadership experience, have the final say in just about everything. _She needs my parents far more than they need her._

The pool at the entrance to the Summer Palace rippled, and a gray-green dragonet a few years older than Orca surfaced. Her pale eyes lit up as they landed on the queen.

"Hello, Moray," Coral said, smiling at her niece.

Moray glowed at the attention, bowing so low that her snout almost touched the ground. Her wings were spread dramatically out to either side. "Your Majesty, my father sent me to inform you that Blister has arrived and will be joining you shortly."

"Thank you, darling," Orca's mother said, patting Moray's talons. "Please let Gill know as well, so he can meet us in the dining hall."

Orca met Teal's gaze, and he wrinkled his snout the way she wanted to. Neither of them was very fond of their cousin, who always seemed to practically worship Coral.

Moray straightened up and, after dipping her head respectfully, flew off toward the caves where the king was conversing with his generals. They had been visited by some MudWing generals a few days ago, and would be meeting with SandWing commanders accompanying Blister when she arrived.

Out of the corner of her eye, Orca saw Brine straighten his stance in anticipation of Princess Blister's arrival, his etiquette as perfect as always. Gyre glanced sideways as well, and did his best to copy their brother's posture. Neither Orca nor Teal adjusted their stances. If anything, Teal slouched a little more.

Orca bit back a smile at that small sign of defiance. Teal might not be as clever as Orca herself, but their shared stubbornness left no doubt that they were related.

A few moments later, their uncle Shark rose out of the water, several SandWings surfacing beside him. Their pale scales, in varying shades of brown and yellow, all stood out from the blue and green hues Orca was used to seeing on dragons, but there was one among them who was clearly more important than the others.

Her scales were white-gold, with black diamond patterns running the length of her spine. Water dripped from her crest and a faint curl of smoke rose from her nostrils in displeasure, but she shook it off and quickly became all charm.

"It's lovely to see you again, Coral," she said, her words as smooth as a placid lake as she climbed gracefully onto dry land. Fathomless dark eyes slid from the queen down the row of dragonets. "I see I'm finally going to meet your young children. And Shark tells me that you have a clutch of eggs hatching in only a few weeks. Congratulations."

"Thank you, Blister," Coral said, looking pleased.

The white-gold dragon dipped her head in acknowledgement, her scales glittering softly in the green-tinged light streaming through the canopy.

Even standing a few feet away from the imposing SandWing, Orca could feel the warmth emanating from her wings as she shook them dry.

Dragons throughout the Summer Palace glanced over and then away, clearly trying not to stare. It was almost unheard of for a dragon of another tribe to visit the queen's hidden castle. But it wasn't only that; Blister had an almost magnetic aura about her. She drew stares, drew whispers, drew allies—all without even trying.

Orca was quickly starting to understand how her mother had been bent to this dragon's wishes so easily. Even she, for all her efforts to make an impression, didn't have such a powerful, charismatic influence.

 _She's dangerous,_ the SeaWing princess thought, narrowing her eyes. _I'd better be careful around her._

"Come," Coral said, beckoning with a flick of her tail. "We can talk more and you can meet my dragonets once we go to the pavilion."

She led the way on jewelry-covered wings, her children shifting automatically into a flight formation behind her. Blister followed them, Shark bringing up the rear. It was a respectful escort, but at the same time, the glint in Shark's pale eyes made it clear that he was watching the SandWing for anything suspicious.

At the top of the Summer Palace, a table had been set for the royal family to dine with their guest. The other SandWings had waited behind at the palace's entrance, where Gill would collect them to join the royals later.

Coral took the seat at the head of the table, the perfect picture of royal authority. Orca and her siblings sat a few seats down, leaving the chairs on either side of their mother's empty for their father and Blister.

"You must be Orca," Blister said as she sat down between Coral and the dark green dragonet. Her voice was polite, persuasive—asking for a friendly relationship.

"Yes," Orca replied shortly, giving nothing away.

"I'm glad to see that my ally has such a confident-looking daughter as her future successor," the snake-like SandWing went on, smiling. Her voice was matter-of-fact, with the slightest hint of flattery woven in. "Although I hope, of course, that your succession remains a distant occasion. I take it you know that's nothing personal."

"Naturally," Orca responded, smiling back. "I understand completely."

Internally, she wasn't nearly as friendly.

 _It'll take more than a few compliments to win me over, SandWing,_ she thought, putting her defenses up. _My mother might not see what you're up to, but I do._

Blister turned to Gyre, who was sitting across from Orca, next. He responded to her attempts to befriend him with a shortness that seemed similar to his sister's, but Orca knew that her brother's tendency towards silence came from nerves instead of craftiness. After a while, though, he relaxed and became more willing to speak.

He shifted in his seat as the subject of their conversation approached the war, and Orca fought back an affectionate smile. She knew what was coming next.

Gyre's voice held a quietly polite but firm tone as he leaned forward. "Fighting is an unfortunate necessity in determining the future of your kingdom—and by extension, all of Pyrrhia—but it can be easy for us as the ruling class to become distant and forget how much our subjects suffer in battle."

"Hmm," Blister responded, narrowing her eyes.

"It's important to minimize our losses," the prince went on earnestly. "That's what I want to focus on when I become a general in the SeaWing army."

The SandWing kept her expression polite, and nodded as if she agreed, but Orca could tell that she wasn't really interested in his input. The royal dragonets were only four years old, and no one took their opinions very seriously yet.

 _Except for mine, s_ he thought, feeling a pang of satisfaction. _I have the power to take over the Kingdom of the Sea one day, and that makes me a threat to Blister's plans._

After discussing Gyre's opinions as minimally as she could, the SandWing princess shifted her attention to Brine. He had none of Gyre's initial reservations, and her subtle flattery worked like a charm on him. Soon, he was chatting away.

"I would be honored to take part in your campaign, Your Majesty," the oldest of the royal dragonets said, his chest puffed out self-importantly. "And once I turn seven, I believe I would make an excellent diplomat to your tribe, if I do so say so myself."

 _He's so full of himself,_ Orca thought, rolling her eyes.

Teal, sitting next to her, noticed the gesture and nodded in agreement.

Blister turned to the blue-green dragonet next, her dark eyes expectant. A look of displeasure flickered across his face, but it was gone before the SandWing could notice it. As far as Orca could tell, she was the only one who saw.

"What about you?" Blister asked. "Do you have any insight to share?"

Though her tone was pleasant, her voice seemed to have a constant hiss behind it. The effect would be rather intimidating to a lesser dragon, Orca decided; it made Blister seem like a giant, venomous snake. The "giant" and "venomous" parts were certainly true. While Blister was lean and wiry in her build rather than hefty and muscular like Grye (or her sister Burn, Orca had heard), she was very tall, towering over even Coral.

"No," Teal replied, his gaze sliding away from Blister's in disinterest.

She paused, waiting, perfectly still apart from her barbed tail coiling and uncoiling. Teal glanced back to her, noticed her watching him, and yawned.

"Cover your mouth when you yawn," Coral told him, frowning in disapproval. "It's rude to put all your teeth on display. Queen Blister, I'm sorry about my youngest son. He never seems to respond to any amount of discipline."

The tiniest spark of wicked satisfaction lit his pale green eyes.

"It's quite alright," Blister said, though her gaze glittered maliciously as it lingered on Teal's serene, unrepentant facial expression. "It isn't your fault, Coral."

Orca, sitting between Blister and her brother, watched the SandWing intently out of the corner of one slit-pupiled blue eye.

She'd known that Blister was her mother's closest ally and therefore inherently her own enemy, but she had been content to merely observe for now. However, if Blister harmed a single scale on Teal's body, Orca wouldn't hold back from ripping her to pieces. Blister might be bigger and stronger, but Orca didn't care—she had magic.

 _Don't even think about it,_ she growled silently.

Blister glanced sideways at her, met her gaze, and smiled coldly.

Coral was about to redirect the conversation when Moray and Gill arrived, along with a group of generals, most of whom were some of Orca's distant cousins. The desert dragons who'd accompanied Blister to the Summer Palace were there, too, as well as a few of the MudWings whom Queen Moorhen had brought during her last visit. They had remained behind when their queen left so that they could coordinate strategies with the SeaWings and now the SandWings.

"Blister, it's nice to see you again," Gill said, nodding politely.

"Likewise," replied the SandWing, her voice still reverberating with that soft hiss.

The king of the SeaWings sat down across from Blister, while the generals of the various tribes settled down at the other end of the table. Gill managed a faint smile, but his eyes were tired-looking. He was always tired-looking these days.

Orca studied his face, concerned. Even though Coral was the one responsible for approving military plans, Gill was constantly working with their generals, planning and listening to their input as often as possible. It seemed he was starting to overwork himself again; whenever he got like this, he needed lots of prodding and a little spoiled-daughter wheedling before he would finally agree to take a break.

 _Are you okay, Daddy?_ she asked in Aquatic.

Orca had never allowed herself to become close to Coral, keeping her distant even when it came to what she called her. _Mother._ The word held nothing even remotely like endearment. But Gill was different; he would always be _Daddy_ to her.

 _I'm fine, dearest,_ he replied. _But thank you for caring._

 _Always._

Blister glanced at the exchange of luminescent patterns. Her dark gaze was puzzled and perhaps a little irritated. It was clear that she knew they were communicating in some way, but didn't understand the underwater language. Dragons outside the SeaWing tribe were never very knowledgeable about it; most didn't even know it existed.

Gyre, noticing the SandWing's suspicion, intervened by starting up a pleasant conversation with her. He was always unfailingly polite. Everyone who met him was at least a little fond of him, and Orca didn't doubt that he could win over even Blister given enough time to speak with her.

She felt a surge of gratitude toward her brother. Despite everything, it was always the four siblings against the world, and Gyre never forgot that. He helped the others out even in the smallest ways whenever he could.

The rest of the meal went by quickly. Gill took over the conversation, forwarding some of the new battle strategies his generals had come up with to Blister. The SandWing was an excellent listener, keeping up with even the most complex theories and unfailingly catching even the slightest holes in each plan.

 _She's very smart,_ Orca thought, feeling new respect for the other princess.

At the end of the meal, the dragonets were excused, while Coral, Gill, Blister, and their generals withdrew to a more private room to plan a more specific course of action to take over the next few months.

"It was lovely to meet all of you," Blister said to the dragonets as she stood to leave, her gaze sweeping slowly over the group. Orca smiled thinly at her in response, while Gyre nodded politely, Brine bowed, and Teal only glanced away.

Again, Blister seemed displeased by the youngest dragonet's behavior, but she said nothing more before walking off to join Coral and Gill.

As they were leaving the Summer Palace, Gyre paused. He nudged Teal with one wing to get his attention and said in Aquatic, _Let's go talk somewhere._

It was unclear whether he was talking to just his brother or the group of siblings at large. Orca and Brine exchanged a glance and silently agreed to follow.

Gyre led the way out of the Summer Palace. The siblings ignored the evenly spaced holes where the SandWings surfaced; they could breathe underwater, so there was no reason to stop. Orca followed the cerulean shape of her brother as he caught the currents beneath his wings, veering off towards one of the nearby islands in the Sea Kingdom's archipelago. Brine and Teal weren't far behind.

The quartet surfaced near the island and swam to the shore. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the sun beat down relentlessly on their scales, which were completely dry within moments of leaving the water.

After gliding through smooth, cool ocean, the sand felt unnaturally rough and hot beneath Orca's talons. Brine grumbled in annoyance as they walked toward the tree line, and Teal shook clumps of sand off his talons after every few steps.

Orca dug her claws into the sand as they came to a stop, burying them in the slightly cooler dirt beneath the scorching surface.

"What were you thinking?" Gyre asked, after making sure there was no one else in earshot. His gaze cut towards his youngest brother.

Teal didn't respond, his eyes flicking slowly this way and that along the sparkling waves on the horizon as if he was watching something only he could see. He didn't seem to be listening, or even register that his brother had said anything at all.

"Teal?" Gyre prompted, shifting his weight uncomfortably. After spending most of their time underwater, none of the SeaWings were really used to being on dry land.

"Are you talking to me?" Teal asked, looking surprised.

"Yes, I'm talking to you," the biggest dragonet said dryly. "I didn't see anyone else making enemies with the next SandWing queen."

Teal's gaze slid to Orca. Of course he'd noticed the unspoken tension between her and Blister; Teal noticed everything. But when Orca shook her head ever-so-slightly, he turned his eyes back to Gyre without commenting.

"I didn't like her," he said simply.

Orca could tell Gyre was trying to be patient.

"Liking or disliking her has nothing to do with it," he said slowly. "You still have to be polite regardless, or you'll make enemies of everyone you meet."

"So?" Teal looked thoroughly unbothered.

"So, it's your fault everyone's been treating us like we're still in our eggs when it comes to politics," growled Brine, looking irritated. "Your idiotic behavior is making us all look immature when in reality it's only you."

"Hey," Orca said sharply. "Don't be like that."

Brine only spared her an annoyed glance. "You shouldn't be so stubborn," he went on, glaring at their last-hatched brother. "Why did you come meet Blister at all if you'd already decided beforehand that you didn't like her?"

"I hadn't already decided anything," Teal responded calmly. "But I could tell what she was like as soon as I saw her. And I don't like her."

"You can't decide that based only on first impressions," Gyre told him.

"Maybe _you_ can't," was his only reply.

Gyre sighed, rubbing the bridge of his snout with one set of webbed claws.

"Well, I liked her," Brine said, with an air of superiority. When he talked like that, his chin raised pretentiously, he looked like a smaller, male version of Coral, only with pale blue eyes instead of green.

"Me too," Orca decided.

"You did?" Teal tilted his head to one side.

Orca nodded. She doubted she and Blister would ever get along, but that didn't mean she couldn't respect the SandWing's cunning. "She reminds me of myself."

Teal shook his head in a sweeping motion, side-to-side. Orca waited for him to say something, but he didn't. If it had been anyone else, she would have thought the gesture was one of exasperation, but with her brother, it seemed more like denial.

"Well, that's how I see it, anyway," she said.

"I can't decide right away," Gyre said. "She's certainly very formidable, but I don't know if she respects Mother as much as she should. It's hard to say just from meeting her once whether she'll honor whatever agreement she made with our tribe."

 _Especially if I become queen in the middle of the war,_ Orca realized. _She could argue that whatever she promised she promised to Coral, not to me. If the war's still not over by the time I take the throne, I'll have to forge a new alliance with her. Or perhaps I'll pull my tribe out of the war entirely, or at least threaten to. With only the MudWings on her side, Blister may not have enough force in numbers to win._

Right now, the three sides of the war seemed about evenly matched. Blister had the MudWings and SeaWings on her side, while Blaze had the IceWings and most of her own tribe. Burn only had the SkyWings and about a quarter of the SandWings, but the sky dragons' mercenary strength made her side a formidable army nevertheless.

 _I could use that balance against Blister,_ Orca mused. _I could probably get away with asking her for a lot more than whatever my mother bargained for..._

All of the tribes had good generals. But it seemed that whenever one was starting to win decisive victories, they would lose the dragon behind those strategies. Just a few weeks ago, a SandWing spy among Blaze's troops had reported to Coral that the IceWings had lost one of their best dragons, who appeared to have been assassinated.

Hearing about the mysterious deaths made Orca's thoughts jump automatically to animus magic. A spell to eliminate any dragon who became too powerful was definitely a shrewd idea. But it was happening to all three sides. Whoever had cast the curse, if that was what it was, must be outside the war.

 _Is it you, Darkstalker?_ she'd wondered, trailing her claws thoughtfully over the list of animus dragons on her enchanted scroll. _Or Stonemover? Or even Jerboa?_

Orca hadn't known what a jerboa was until she'd researched the last animus's name and discovered that she was named for a small, desert-dwelling rodent. Apparently, the SandWings had an animus, though Orca wasn't sure whether she was allied with any of the potential queens. She'd thought it pretty safe to rule out Blister, who had been hoping to find one among the SeaWings, and Orca was willing to guess that if Burn had her own animus, she'd be using the magic aggressively rather than cunningly. Blaze probably wouldn't have a clue what animus magic was capable of, if she was as dumb as the scrolls made her out to be, though Glacier could be the brains behind it.

It seemed more likely that Jerboa was staying out of any particular side, especially if she'd been the one to cast the curse, though why anyone would want to prolong the war was a concept that Orca couldn't fully understand.

 _There must be a reason,_ she'd thought, pushing the idea to the back of her mind, where her subconscious might be able to work it out.

But the animus who had cast the curse wasn't necessarily Jerboa, who might be staying out of the war and saving her powers the same way Orca had. That left Darkstalker and Stonemover, whose names clearly marked them as NightWings.

She'd never met any of the others, but she felt like she knew them. They all had the same power she did, and likely similar craftiness. After skimming a scroll on animus dragons in recent history, she hadn't found any of their names. She guessed that all of them kept their powers a well-guarded secret.

The last recorded animus had lived several hundred years ago.

She had been one of Orca's ancestors, a dragon called Queen Algae. According to the scroll, she had been extremely careful with her magic, following the IceWing practice of using her magic only once in her lifetime to avoid losing her soul. Algae had enchanted a necklace which warned her about potential dangers to herself and to her tribe and had been perfectly fine. Not only sane, in fact, but a good queen.

Orca wasn't content with just one enchantment. She would push her limits a bit farther than that, but she would stop the moment she felt something start to change. In the meantime, she would cast each spell carefully and thoughtfully.

She wondered if the NightWings had enchanted their entire kingdom to remain hidden and if that was why no one had ever been able to find it. With two animus dragons, who could do literally anything with their magic, it certainly seemed possible. The only limit their powers had, it seemed from all the history scrolls Orca had studied, was how much imagination the animus had and how far they were willing to go.

But Orca wasn't sure she would want to try a spell that large herself. As much as she cared about her tribe, she would use her magic for her own benefit first, theirs second. There was a limit to how much she was willing to do for her fellow SeaWings, and throwing away her soul was definitely on the other side of that line.

Besides, the SeaWings already had their Summer Palace in a secret location; they didn't need a hidden kingdom like the one the NightWings had.

In any case, any potential motive the NightWings' could have to drag out the war was just as elusive as one Jerboa might have. Orca knew that if she ever did something about the war, it would definitely not be casting an enchantment that dragged it out.

It was definitely a puzzle.

And she couldn't forget that it might not even be an animus curse at all.

She could always use magic to answer her myriad questions, but Orca didn't think that was necessary. She would never waste a spell on something that she could work out on her own. Sure, it would make life easier now, but it would eventually backfire later on down the currents, if her soul began fraying to the extent that it affected her mind.

Orca wasn't totally sure she believed dragons really had _souls_ , per se, but there was definitely something that animus dragons lost, and she didn't want to find out what. The closest thing she had been able to equate the state of having lost one's soul to was going insane, and Orca had always relied far too much on her mind to risk losing it. More even than her magic, her brains were what set her apart from everyone else.

Orca dragged her mind back to the present.

"You're right," she said to Gyre, "and being cautious. That's smart."

Reluctantly, Brine nodded in agreement. However thoroughly convinced of his own self-importance he could be sometimes, he wasn't stupid. Even when flattered, he knew better than to trust blindly, especially a dragon as clever as Blister.

Teal shrugged. He'd already made up his mind, and there was no changing it either way. Orca supposed it was better he dislike Blister than make the mistake of trusting her.

"We might disagree about this," she said slowly, glancing around at all of them. They'd automatically gathered in their usual way, Gyre and Brine forming a triangle with Orca while Teal hung a little further back. "But we're still in this together, right?"

Teal nodded vigorously, while Brine gave a single sharp nod, and Gyre just blinked evenly in response. On this, they were agreed.

It had always been the four of them against the world, and it always would be.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Sorry for the wait! I'm finally back with another chapter.**

 **Guest (10/8): Thank you! That means so much to me! :D**

 **Another anonymous reviewer called Guest (10/18) pointed out that Whirlpool is supposed to be older than Orca, based on a comment Coral made in _The Lost Heir_... which I'll admit that I totally forgot about. However, it's been too many days for me to go back and fix that in the first chapter now, so please just assume that Whirlpool is a year or two older than Orca and is just physically smaller than her. I'll try to clarify that in-universe in a later chapter.**

 **Feedback is always welcome and highly appreciated. :)**

 **Thanks for reading!**

* * *

Pufferfish closed his eyes and inhaled deeply through his nostrils, taking a moment to enjoy the warmth of the sun soaking into his navy blue scales and the salty smell of the sea on the breeze. The feelings were comforting to him, familiar after the years he'd spent living on the beach with his parents. As part of the team of lookouts guarding the islands at the edges of the Sea Kingdom's archipelago, they'd raised him away from most of the tribe. He couldn't help but prefer sunlight and sand over the ocean depths.

In fact, as he hovered over the gently churning water, he couldn't help the shiver of foreboding he felt at the thought of leaving all that behind.

 _Don't be silly, Puff,_ he told himself, shaking his wings as if ridding them of water droplets clinging to his scales. _You're still a SeaWing, after all. You were born to swim through the darkness and the currents, not spend your whole life on land._

He only wished that sounded more appealing.

Pufferfish had been training with the other guards to patrol the perimeters of the Sea Kingdom. It would take weeks to circle around the entire archipelago by flight, so the guards had divided it up into twelve spokes. Fast underwater currents turned what would still be a day's wing-aching flight between each outpost into a few hours of allowing the natural flow of the water to move you along.

Puff secretly didn't care for being underwater, even for only those short periods of time. The saltwater seemed to scrape at his gills, and the buoyant feeling of being held by the waves made him feel like he lacked control instead of quicker and stronger the way most of his tribe regarded it. However, riding the currents from post to post wasn't so bad; they were close enough to the ocean's surface that Pufferfish could still see curtains of sunlight streaming down between the waves.

If there had been an incident in his dragonethood, he couldn't remember it; all he knew was that when he thought about going deeper, he was filled with a pervasive sense of foreboding. The way the water pressure increased the farther down he went didn't help either; it felt like all the air was being squeezed out of his lungs.

But now he had to go deeper.

As the war grew increasingly dangerous, his parents had become more and more insistent that battle was no place for a six-year-old dragonet. They had sent a letter to the queen, requesting that Pufferfish be relocated from the outer islands to kitchen duty in the Deep Palace. Queen Coral had accepted, and off he had been sent.

As he hesitated above the ocean's surface, glancing back at his island home in the distance, he tried not to feel too rejected.

 _They're sending me someplace safe because they care,_ Puff reminded himself. _If they're sending me away even knowing that I want to stay, it's because they think it's better for me to stay out of danger than to be happy._

He tried not to dwell on the inevitable sense of frustration he felt at the thought that this world was one where parents had to choose between their dragonets' safety and happiness. Being able to have both had become a luxury where it should have been the norm. The war had changed that, as it changed so many other things.

Pufferfish had never known a time before the war, but his parents told numerous stories of more peaceful times. Even ten years after the fighting had started, they were still surprised sometimes by the constant violence. To Puff, it was only normal.

 _Why is it normal?_ he couldn't help wondering. _Why did the SandWings have to drag the rest of us into their battle? Two dragons, at most, should have died over that throne. And now we've lost count of how many actually have._

His mother had explained that no one expected the war to last longer than a couple of months. It should have been an easy victory for Blister, the strategist. She just needed strength in numbers, and that's why the SeaWings and MudWings had agreed to side with her. They would benefit greatly from this alliance.

But Blister had seriously underestimated her sisters. Burn and even Blaze had quickly realized that they needed another tribe's numbers to match Blister's army.

No one knew exactly what had been promised to the other tribes in exchange for their participation, but it was only a few weeks before all of them were involved in the conflict, fighting for one SandWing princess or another.

It hadn't been a personal fight for the other tribes, though, not at first. But as time went on, they became more and more invested in the outcome, as they lost loved ones in battle. In that way, a fight for one dragon's power became a story of myriad quests for retribution. Not a single dragon who'd been in it since the beginning wanted to back out now, because then their losses would have been all for nothing.

Younger dragons, born during the war, didn't understand that pain because they hadn't lost anyone yet. But they would all lose someone eventually, because that was the nature of war. While they were all made to avenge dragons they had never known, they lost their own friends and family and started down their own roads to vengeance.

Deep down, Puff didn't think it would ever end.

His father cried at night sometimes because the normalization of violence pained him so much. He didn't want his son to grow up not knowing what peace was like.

But that was reality.

Puff wondered if his father thought he would grow up to be less of a dragon, to have less compassion on the inside, because of it. The way Puff saw it, it was dragons who had grown up knowing what peace was like who had started this war in the first place, not the dragons who had been born into violence. Puff might not know anything but war, but the danger and pain he'd experienced in his short lifetime thus far convinced him that the fighting was something he wanted to get out of.

But if that was what he wanted, then why was he still hesitating?

 _Because this is only a temporary escape,_ he thought. _I might be safe in the Deep Palace, but my parents are still fighting. Being somewhere I no longer see the violence doesn't mean that it isn't still happening._

He didn't know what things would be like in even just a year, when he turned seven and would be allowed to make his own choice about where to live. He hoped that the war wouldn't ravage the world above the surface beyond recognition in that time.

 _Pyrrhia,_ he flashed in Aquatic, as if the land he called home was a living being that could see and understand him. _Please don't let anything bad happen to my parents while I'm gone. Keep them safe until I return._

He flexed his claws absentmindedly, wishing he could have brought his cello with him. He'd had the instrument since he was a little dragonet, and it felt weird to be without it for longer than a few hours. It would have been difficult to carry it all the way to the Deep Palace, and Pufferfish couldn't play it underwater anyway, but his claws tingled in protest; they felt too light without its familiar weight.

 _Enough dithering,_ he told himself, as firmly as he could.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and dove into the water with an enormous splash, the chill of it seeping between his scales and making him shudder. Bubbles tickled his ears as they drifted to the surface around him.

Puff opened his eyes and looked around. The sunlight streaming down through the water's surface cast rippling patterns across the sandy ocean floor many feet below, and small fish darted by all around him.

He'd never actually gone to the Deep Palace before, but he'd memorized the map of currents his parents had given him, and he knew how to get there. It would be a day or two of allowing the ocean to carry him there and having nothing else to do but worry about whether he was going the right way or whether his parents would be okay.

He wished he'd asked them to go over his Aquatic with him again. He didn't use it often, except to exchange reports with fellow scouts when switching posts. And they'd spoken only their own dialect, which was much different from the formal usage he'd been homeschooled in. It would be embarrassing if Puff tried to talk with the royal family, of all dragons, and sounded like he'd never been educated. True, he'd never gone to school with other dragonets, but his parents had taught him well enough.

Puff shook off the thought and shifted his wings to catch the right current, trying not to panic as it grabbed hold of him and pushed him along.

This was it. There was no going back now.

He couldn't help but start to feel lonely once several hours had passed without any interaction with other dragons. Once or twice, he thought he spotted green or blue scales in the distance, but no one approached him or lit up their stripes in greeting. Apparently, this part of the ocean was relatively deserted.

After a few more hours, he started to get tired of seeing fish swim by.

By nightfall, he'd reached the starting point of a different current, which would take him the rest of the way to the Deep Palace. He tried to sleep as he let the water carry him along, but he was too tense to do more than doze in brief periods before some worried thought or another jolted him back awake.

The next morning, he encountered a significantly larger number of dragons, some of whom caught his gaze and flashed various greetings in Aquatic. Pufferfish was able to respond adequately, or so he guessed by the satisfied expressions on the other SeaWings' faces as they nodded in farewell and continued on their way. Some of his self-confidence returned, and he swam on with a new sense of purpose.

Puff reached the Deep Palace by mid-afternoon.

He swam up to the immense coral reef, looking at it with grudging awe. He didn't want to like this place—it was taking him away from home. But the truth was that despite its antagonistic role in his life, the palace was beautiful.

There were other dragons swimming casually around the seaweed gardens. A few little ones played hide-and-seek, darting through the water to conceal themselves in the maze of bright colors like frightened fish.

Puff swam up to a guard standing by the main entrance.

 _Excuse me,_ he said in Aquatic. _I was summoned to work here in the Deep Palace. Queen's orders. Can you point me towards the kitchens?_

The guard studied him with dark blue eyes. _Name?_

 _Puff,_ he said, and then hastily corrected himself. _Pufferfish. Puff for short._

The guard nodded, seeming to recognize the name. _ID?_

He faltered. _I didn't bring any documentation._ Somehow, he hadn't thought to.

 _Showing me the stripes under your wings will do,_ she said patiently.

 _Oh._ Puff felt foolish, but lifted his wings and lit up their stripes.

The guard unrolled an impressively long scroll and studied it. Through the back of the paper, Puff saw that it was a list of names, each with a pattern of luminescent stripes beside it. The guard compared her image with Puff's stripes and then nodded.

 _Okay, you've been verified,_ she flashed in Aquatic. She rolled up the identification scroll and then pointed to her right. _To get to the kitchens, it's easier if you go around to the back entrance. Third floor up, down to the end of the corridor._

 _Thank you._ Puff hoped he'd followed her Aquatic properly.

To his relief, there was indeed a back entrance, and after showing his wing stripes to another guard there, he was allowed inside and given directions to the kitchens again. The repetition made him more confident, and he felt only slightly nervous by the time he reached the entrance and poked his head in.

 _Hello,_ said a sky-blue dragon, swimming over. _Can I help you?_

He explained that he had just arrived at the Deep Palace and would now work here as a chef. He'd never made any fancy dishes, but was a decent cook and had often been nominated to make meals for his parents and the other soldiers back home.

 _Good to have you here, Puff,_ said the other dragon, looking genuinely pleased. _We could certainly use the help. You've come a long way, so you can retire to your room for now and start actually working tomorrow instead._

 _Thank you…_ Puff trailed off, not knowing what to call her.

 _Oh, I'm sorry,_ said the other SeaWing, lightly tapping her forehead with one set of webbed talons. _I never introduced myself, did I? My name is Azure. Many of the others work in different shifts throughout the week, but I'm basically here all the time. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask me!_

What little anxiety he had left faded, and Puff nodded gratefully.

A few of her stripes had flashed in a pattern he didn't recognize, but her sentence still made sense without it, so he decided not to worry about it.

 _Oh—the kitchen workers have rooms in the hall up one more flight,_ she added. _I forgot you wouldn't know. Ack, I'm such a mess right now! We just organized a meeting with Blister at the beginning of this week, and I've been struggling to catch up on sleep ever since then. I promise I'm not usually so scatterbrained!_ She sighed, making a cloud of small bubbles rise through the water, and rubbed her forehead.

Puff smiled. _It's okay. Thanks again!_

He'd taken an immediate liking to this dragon. She talked quickly, which made her Aquatic difficult to keep up with, but she seemed completely genuine.

For the first time, Puff admitted to himself that coming to live at the Deep Palace probably wouldn't be the worst thing to ever happen to him.

 _You're very welcome,_ she said, and then made an Aquatic gesture that he'd never seen before. For a second, he just stared at her in confusion, but she then turned to go, and Puff guessed that it meant some form of "goodbye".

He sighed, some of his enthusiasm deflating. He still had a lot to learn.

* * *

Adjusting was difficult. Puff felt immensely claustrophobic spending days on end underwater in a room filled with dragons. It was unexpectedly quiet—he'd forgotten that they couldn't talk verbally—but the water pressed uncomfortably against his ears and the flashing of scales all around was bright and distracting. Puff still had difficulty translating Aquatic to normal Pyrrhian; he understood it, but reading scales and gestures didn't come naturally to him. The snippets of conversation here and there were over before he had time to figure out what everyone was saying around him. It made him feel isolated.

Another thing that bothered him were the statues located throughout the palace. In various shapes and sizes, the one thing they had in common was that they all had jewels for eyes. The makeshift eyes glinted as they caught the light and seemed to follow him as he walked by. Puff couldn't help feeling as if he were being spied on.

He passed by them every evening and morning when going to and from his room, and he couldn't help eyeing them nervously as he swam by.

Azure noticed that he never said much, and came over every once in a while to ask how he was doing. Puff answered in a friendly but concise way. He knew more Aquatic than he typically gave himself credit for, but it was easier to understand than speak. His responses were always slow and halting as he searched for the right patterns to express the verbal words which bubbled up in his mind.

After about a week, Azure seemed to figure it out.

 _Where are you from, Puff?_ she asked, as they arranged bowls of salad side by side.

 _The kingdom outskirts,_ he answered, hoping his syntax was correct.

 _You're not very confident in your Aquatic, are you?_ she guessed.

 _Not really,_ he admitted. _I never used it much, except for making brief reports._

 _No wonder you're so quiet,_ Azure said, beaming as if she'd finally solved a puzzle after working at it for years. _You didn't seem unfriendly, but you don't really ever speak to anyone, either, and I've noticed that you don't use tone modifiers even when your facial expression changes. This makes so much more sense!_ _Don't worry,_ she went on. _I can help you with it. My sister used to teach Aquatic before she joined the army, and she passed along some of her skills to me._

 _Will you, please?_ Puff asked hopefully.

 _Of course,_ she said, an unfamiliar pattern of stripes lighting up again.

 _What does that mean?_ he asked, imitating it.

 _Oh, that? It's one of the tone modifiers I just mentioned,_ Azure explained. _It's used to indicate enthusiasm, like an exclamation point in written Pyrrhian._

That actually made a lot of sense. Also, he wasn't surprised that he hadn't learned any tone modifiers. The guards didn't need to be able to indicate enthusiasm. Reporting wasn't really anything to get excited about.

They spent the next couple of weeks practicing Aquatic together as they worked. Azure spoke more slowly now for his benefit, which helped a lot. Puff began to think of her as something akin to a big sister; she was clearly full grown, making her at least ten years old, but looked not nearly as old as his mother. He'd never had siblings, which was rare for SeaWings and surprised Azure when he mentioned it in conversation.

Puff was pleased that he recognized the pattern which indicated her astonishment. Slowly but steadily, the underwater language was becoming easier for him.

Several days into Azure's lessons, Puff started being able to catch the bits of gossip flashing between the other kitchen workers. Their go-to topic seemed to be Queen Coral's clutch of eggs, which were due to hatch soon. The workers enjoyed speculating on whether the new dragonets would be anything like the first four.

Though he worked at the Deep Palace, Puff never went far from either the servants' quarters or the kitchens and hadn't yet encountered any of the royal family. He always paid special attention when he saw their names come up in conversation.

 _Coral. The queen._

Said to have taken the throne at the start of the war, when the previous queen, her mother, refused to ally with any of the SandWings. Apparently, Coral had disagreed strongly with her mother's politics. According to gossip, Coral was strong in both body and will, and almost never changed her mind.

 _Gill. The king._

Immensely caring, thoughtful, and patient. Fair and kind to his subjects, but above everything loyal to his wife and dragonets. The other workers in the kitchens seemed to believe that there was nothing he wouldn't do for his family.

 _Gyre. The pacifist._

Hardworking, and as easygoing as his father. A little reserved. Usually seen in the library with a scroll on philosophy or war—namely, how to end one.

 _Brine. The leader._

The oldest of the four royal dragonets, and not inclined to let anyone forget it.

There seemed to be mixed feelings about him in the kitchens. Some said that he was distinctly snobby, while others insisted it was merely confidence that rubbed some dragons the wrong way. However, everyone agreed that he was certainly very opinionated and never shied away from a debate.

 _Teal._ Just Teal.

There was always a pause after he was brought up. No one seemed entirely sure how to feel about him or even describe him. The words they used were always vague and spoken with more restraint than usually associated with gossip.

 _Peculiar,_ they offered at last, looking distinctly uncomfortable as they spoke the word aloud. _Distracted. Just a little bit… off._

 _What's so strange about Teal?_ Puff had asked Azure when the prince's name had first come up, hesitant to actually participate in the gossip instead of only listening but ultimately too curious to resist.

She hesitated. _It's hard to describe._

 _Try,_ he suggested, adding a pleading tone modifier.

 _All right._ The sky-blue dragon glanced over her shoulder, as if afraid the prince in question would come swimming in, before answering slowly. _He doesn't always respond to you when you try to talk to him, and won't make eye contact... unless he's the one starting the discussion… which just doesn't happen. The only dragon I've actually seen him willingly initiate a conversation with is his sister_ , _who happens to be extremely protective of him and would clobber you with her tail if she overheard you calling him strange._

Puff swallowed nervously, and glanced at the doorway as uneasily as Azure had the minute before. Thankfully, the princess wasn't there.

 _Orca. The heir._

As much a killer as her namesake, if the most faintly-whispered rumors were to be believed. Respected and feared by most of the tribe, and well on her way to becoming the youngest queen Pyrrhia had ever seen. Eerily intuitive. Able to pick up on a dragon's deepest, darkest secrets.

 _Don't be ridiculous,_ he'd scolded himself, as he returned to sorting the fish that the hunters had brought back for the queen's table. _As scary as dragons think she is, she still can't have eyes everywhere. And she's never come to the kitchens before._

The thought wasn't as comforting as he'd expected it to be.

* * *

It was another week before any of the royal dragonets came, but when one of them finally did visit, Puff could tell immediately.

 _Your Highness,_ one of the workers said in Aquatic, the brightness of the phrase catching Puff's eye, immediately setting down the stack of plates he had been carrying across the kitchen and bowing. _What can we make for you this afternoon?_

 _I don't mean to interrupt your hard work,_ said the dragon who'd entered, leaning against the doorframe with a polite smile on his face. His scales were cobalt blue, his eyes a much paler shade of the same color. _But I'd like a crab cake, please._

Puff still had some difficulty reading tone, but he thought the prince seemed a little too comfortable there for the polite words to be genuine. Rather, they seemed to be merely part of a formal code he'd been taught. He didn't _really_ mind if he interrupted the cooks. They were there to work for his family, after all.

 _Of course, Your Highness,_ Azure said, and set her task aside to make the dish the prince had requested. Perhaps it was because the royal dragonet was relatively small, and clearly several years younger than Pufferfish, but he thought the promptness at which she responded to the prince's sudden whim was slightly absurd.

The dragonet's pale blue gaze traveled with mild boredom around the room until it landed on Puff, and the prince straightened up. _You're new._

 _Yes,_ Puff said, nodding in confirmation, realizing belatedly that it wasn't really a question. _I'm Pufferfish, though everyone calls me Puff. Your Highness._

 _Cute nickname._ The prince laughed a little. _I'm Prince Brine._

Puff felt a little judged, but couldn't think of an adequate response.

Brine scratched absentmindedly at his gills, drawing Puff's attention to a golden chain he wore looped around his neck. Resting against the prince's deep blue chest was a turtle-shaped pendant which looked like it had been carved from a seashell.

 _Cute necklace,_ Puff said, before he could check himself.

Thankfully, he hadn't remembered to add the sarcastic modifier Azure had taught him a couple days ago, and Brine didn't seem to pick up on his passive aggression.

 _Isn't it?_ the prince said, admiring it proudly. _My sister carved it for me._

 _Princess Orca?_ Puff asked.

 _The one and only,_ Brine answered. _She's a very talented sculptor._

Puff tried to fit this new information with the picture of Orca he'd been painting in his mind. He imagined her sculpting carefully with a knife. And then attacking someone with the knife. He blinked it away, thinking, _Don't be ridiculous, Puff._

 _That's nice,_ he said, when it became clear that the royal dragonet was still waiting for a response. He really wanted to go back to working instead of talking, but everyone else was working and ignoring the prince didn't seem socially acceptable. He supposed the task of entertaining Brine while he waited for his food had fallen to him.

 _What other things has she carved?_ he asked.

 _Oh, most of the statues around the palace are hers,_ Brine told him. _She's going bigger and better with each piece. Though this necklace is obviously a favorite of mine. She gave it to me for our fourth hatching day._

Despite his snarky comment, Puff did like it. The amount of detail in its tiny shell and fins was certainly impressive. Its gemstone eyes winked at him as he studied it, but they seemed less malevolent than the spies out in the hallway.

Pufferfish was saved from needing to drag out the conversation even further when another dragon burst into the kitchen, her grayish-green scales lighting up in an excited modifier. She almost tripped over the royal dragonet still lingering in the doorway, but he barely seemed to notice as she announced, _Her Majesty's eggs are starting to hatch!_

Brine straightened up. _They are?_

 _Yes, Your Highness,_ the newcomer said, seeming slightly out of breath. _Queen Coral requested the presence of all of her dragonets in the Royal Hatchery._

 _I'll go there right away,_ the prince said. _You should come too, Moray._

The green dragon nodded, and the two swam off in a hurry.

 _I guess Brine doesn't want his crab cake anymore,_ Puff thought ruefully.

 _Puff!_ Azure lit up all her scales to get his attention. _Go look for the rest of the royal dragonets. Princess Orca might be in her studio, so check there first. It's up on the fifth floor at the end of the hall. You can't miss it._

Puff nodded and rushed off. It was only once he was halfway there that he realized he was about to meet Orca, the princess he'd heard so much about.

He knocked gently on the wall next to the doorway before he remembered that no one would be able to hear it. He corrected himself by flashing a few stripes to announce his presence in a respectful way.

If there was anyone inside, they didn't respond.

Puff started to swim away to look elsewhere, and then turned back. If the studio was empty, it wouldn't hurt to take a quick peek inside, would it? He was curious to see what a half-sculpted piece looked like. Perhaps it would give him some clue as to what the SeaWing princess was really like. He hesitated for one more moment, gills fluttering indecisively, before he made up his mind and swam tentatively into the room.

He glanced around curiously, taking in the various blocks of stone lined up against the far wall and the table in the middle of the room. Atop the table was a work in progress, along with a few sculpting tools which had been set down in a neat line.

Suddenly, something slammed into him, pinning him to the wall. Puff instinctively screamed, letting out a rush of bubbles that only succeeded in obscuring his vision.

When they cleared, he found himself staring straight into a pair of blue eyes. They were precisely the color of sapphires throughout most of the irises, except for a small flare of ice blue around each slit pupil. The eyes were set into a face of dark green scales and were currently glinting with something like amusement.

The dragon they belonged to had let go of Puff only a moment after she'd assaulted him, and he rubbed his sore shoulders nervously, hoping she wasn't going to commence beating him up. He should never have invaded her studio without permission, even if it had seemed like no one was there.

 _You're Orca, right?_ he asked, accidentally slipping into informal Aquatic.

 _The…_ killer _whale?_ she responded, her stripes lighting up slowly and menacingly just before she pretended to lunge at him again. He flinched back, making her whirl away laughing in a cloud of bubbles. Once she straightened up again, she gave him a shark-like grin that didn't make her look any less frightening. _That's me._

 _Great,_ he said, swallowing. _Her Majesty wants you in the Hatchery._

 _Her Majesty,_ Orca echoed, wrinkling her snout. _That title doesn't really work for her very well, does it? I think it would suit_ me _much better._

Puff stared at her. He wasn't sure whether to agree or disagree or say nothing at all. Which response would make her less inclined to murder him?

 _You don't have to answer that,_ she said, with a wave of her talons. _Or look at me like I'm planning your death. I was joking._

He still didn't say anything (honestly, he wasn't sure which part had been a joke), and she sighed. _So… the Hatchery? I'm guessing that means her lovely little clutch of eggs is hatching. I'm not as fussed as she is about them, but I guess I'll go. Though now that I think about it, I don't actually know where the Hatchery is._

Despite his fear, Puff couldn't help but snort in amusement at that.

 _Oh, so you do know what a joke is,_ she said, with a more genuine-looking smile. _But I was kind of serious, too. I haven't been there since I hatched._

 _If you're expecting me to lead you there, you should probably know that I've never been there either,_ he told her. _I've only been working here for a few weeks._

 _Well, you can help me look, and then neither of us can really get in trouble if we arrive late,_ Orca said. For the whole conversation so far, she hadn't used any of the tone modifiers Azure had taught him, and Puff really couldn't tell how serious she was until she paused in the doorway to glance back at him. _Well, aren't you coming?_

 _Right,_ he said, and hurried to catch up with her.

They swam in silence for a moment until Orca suddenly stopped beside a certain door on the fourth floor. _We should probably find Teal before we go. He might not be aware that anything's happening right now, even if someone told him._

Puff found the comment odd, but decided not to say anything. He was pretty sure he'd followed her Aquatic correctly, but he didn't want to be mistaken, especially since he knew that Orca was apparently " _extremely protective"_ of her brother and _"would clobber you with her tail if she overheard you calling him strange"._

 _Teal!_ she said, poking her head into the room. _It's time to go._

Without even questioning where they were going, the dragonet in the room rolled up the scroll he'd been reading and swam out to join them. His pale green eyes glittered with some unreadable emotion as he scanned Puff's face.

 _Teal, this is…_ She glanced at Puff curiously. _You never said your name, did you?_

 _It's Pufferfish,_ he told the royal dragonets. _But just Puff, really._

 _Teal, this is Puff,_ Orca amended. _Puff, this is my brother, Teal._

Teal blinked at Puff and said nothing at all.

Orca glanced from one of the male dragons to the other and back again and then smiled, as if she was able to tell more from the silence than Puff could. _Let's go. By the end of the day, I suppose I'll have more brothers to introduce you to._


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Hello, everyone! I'm honestly shocked that it's been over a year and a half since I last updated this story; real life got in the way for a while, and after that I think I just totally forgot most of what I had planned for this story. I'm putting it back together, though, and I like where it's going now, so I guess it's all for the best! For those of you who have been following this story since before that huge gap, welcome back and thank you so much for your patience, and for those of you who are new, I hope you've been enjoying the story so far!**

 **Thank you all for reading! Like always, I'd love to hear what you guys think, but most importantly, enjoy!**

* * *

Finding the Hatchery took much longer than it logistically should have, and Orca couldn't honestly say she was sorry about that. Searching for something for an extended period of time was usually an interesting experience, especially if it was a team effort. And being on a team could teach one quite a lot about its members.

Orca never objected to being with her youngest brother, and this Pufferfish dragon was quite cute, really, with his dark blue scales and bright green eyes. It was a shame he was only a worker here at the Deep Palace instead of some kind of fancy noble.

Coral would definitely object to Orca trying to court him this way.

Not that _he_ wanted to court _her_ —at least, not yet. The poor dragon seemed frankly terrified of her, something which had the potential to become tedious down the currents but which she found immensely amusing at the moment. He kept shooting her nervous glances out of the corner of his eye whenever she swam sort of close to him.

They circled the palace, hoping that it would be clear which of the rooms branching off the Deep Palace was the Hatchery. Orca couldn't remember what it was supposed to look like, because she honestly couldn't care less about a bunch of eggs.

 _It's not like they can do anything besides hatch,_ she thought. It was once the shells broke, the smooth orb giving way to horns and wings and claws, that they would be truly interesting. All dragons were, to her, in one way or another. Even the stupidest dragons could be fascinating, because they were the ones who could be manipulated most easily; a few words here, the right amount of attention, and they'd belong to you.

 _I'm sure Blister knows that,_ she thought. _But Mother doesn't._

But that wasn't surprising to any dragon who had spent more than a few hours in conversation with Orca's mother. Queen Coral had never been the image of royalty that Orca always turned to. It was their historical leaders she admired most.

Queen Algae the Wise was her personal favorite, her animus patron saint, but there were also Queen Saline the Great and Queen Mysid the Peacemaker, among others.

It had been disappointing to her to learn that animus dragons couldn't bring back the dead. Orca would've given almost anything, even half her soul, for a chance to talk with her ancestors. They were dragons who had shaped history and who had held the same power she'd longed for ever since she'd learned what being a princess meant. They'd created the whole Sea Kingdom as she knew it, and they'd even created her.

All of their actions over the course of history had ultimately led to her being here right now. Orca knew that one day she'd be each of their greatest achievements.

She wasn't ready yet. But Orca knew patience like she knew her own scales. She could wait at least until she was full grown, and spend the rest of the time (two-and-a-half years) until then studying history until she knew better than to make any of her ancestors' mistakes. She already knew better than to make Coral's.

 _Honestly, I don't know how I came out of one of her eggs,_ she thought. _I hope the rest of these dragonets take after my brothers and me instead of after her._

Teal didn't know where the Hatchery was, either. Though he had an excellent eye for detail and great memory, he could never be bothered memorizing maps and similar charts, which he found boring. It didn't really matter much, though, in the long run; he never went anywhere alone anyway, preferring to stay in his room with a scroll whenever he wasn't obligated to be someplace else.

 _I can stop at the kitchens and ask one of my fellow workers for directions,_ Puff offered, but Orca brushed off the suggestion. She didn't like mingling with other dragons. The only major downside to having a massive number of wild rumors following her around was that dragons were always whispering when she was in a room with them, and that could be immensely distracting. After a while, it itched her ears.

 _It could be this way,_ she suggested, pointing in a random direction that looked like it might be promising. _We haven't checked over here yet._

 _That's assuming the Hatchery is even attached to the Deep Palace,_ Puff pointed out. _We might be looking in entirely the wrong place._

 _I think you have to take some currents to get there,_ Teal offered helpfully.

 _Probably,_ said Orca, rolling her eyes.

 _I'm going to stop and ask someone,_ decided Puff. _I'll be right back._ He swam off quickly back towards the Deep Palace, leaving Orca and Teal behind.

 _Oh, that's interesting,_ she thought. Normally, dragons did as she said, even when she could tell they didn't agree with her. Pufferfish, despite being afraid of her, apparently had no qualms about openly disagreeing with and even going against what she wanted.

For a moment, Orca wasn't sure how to feel about that. She was going to be queen one day, and disobedience wasn't something she was going to want to deal with.

But then again, she had other ways of securing obedience than just intimidation. And as much as she trusted her own mind over everyone else's, she supposed that being around dragons with different points of view could be beneficial.

Mindless servants would be boring. Independent, loyal ones would be invaluable.

She knew this because she'd read about it. Coral was the only SeaWing queen who wasted her time on poorly-written novels and plays and other dramatic nonsense, but she wasn't the only queen who'd decided to leave a legacy in writing as well as blood. Several of the queens had either chronicled their own reigns or chosen a scribe, usually one of their brothers, to do it for them. Orca had spent countless hours in the library poring over the books of her ancestors until she felt like she knew each of them.

One day, she supposed, she'd probably write her own.

 _What title will they give me in all the history scrolls?_ she wondered; it was her go-to topic whenever she had time to kill. _Queen Orca the Shrewd? Orca the Magnificent?_

Those might be accurate, but they were typical titles for royalty. Hers needed to be something that would make a lasting impression on everyone who heard of her.

 _How about Queen Orca the Undefeated?_

That had quite the ring to it.

To earn that title, though, she'd have to win the current war for Blister. And she'd have to make it through the entirety of her reign without being overthrown in a challenge, until she died peacefully of old age. Or something like that.

Orca didn't like thinking about her own mortality.

Slowly but steadily aging, becoming old and feeble, was not a pleasant idea to dwell on. It made Orca's scales itch and it made her hate waiting, which she was normally very good at. She had to take deep breaths and remind herself that she was young and healthy right now, and that it would be a very long time—unimaginable to a dragon as young as herself—before she started to feel the effects of age.

But even though she could put it temporarily out of mind, growing old was the one thing that Orca truly feared. It was the one thing that came back to her at night and kept her awake for hours, tossing and turning in the darkness.

Thankfully, Puff returned quickly with the information they needed. It turned out that the Hatchery was indeed a few currents away, and the staff member who Puff had asked had helpfully sketched out a map of the ones they needed to take.

Puff held onto the scrap of paper and led the way, Orca and Teal following him.

Orca wanted to hear the other dragonet speak more. She flashed the stripes on her wings to get his attention and then said, _You told me you're new to the Deep Palace. So where did you come from? The Summer Palace, perhaps?_

Puff just looked at her for a moment, his reaction slightly delayed. _No, I've never been to either of the palaces until a few weeks ago. Before this, I was located at one of the bases at the kingdom's outskirts. My parents are soldiers there._

 _You don't speak Aquatic there?_ Teal asked curiously.

Puff looked startled. _Not much, actually. We spend most of our time above water. But I didn't say anything about that just now._

 _I know,_ said Teal. _But I could tell. It takes you a while to hear what Orca's saying._

Puff was silent for a moment, perhaps trying to work out exactly what Teal meant by that. _I'm better at it now than I was when I first got here,_ he responded eventually. _But Orca's Aquatic is a little tricky to follow. She doesn't use tone modifiers._

Orca let out an amused huff. Few dragons would be so straightforward about what could potentially be seen as criticism of the kingdom's only heir. But she doubted Puff realized he was being daring. He was just saying what he thought. Usually, Teal was the only dragon who was so straightforward about whatever he said.

Teal shrugged. _She doesn't really need to. I can always tell what she means._

 _That's because you're my brother,_ said Orca. _Puff doesn't know me yet._

 _Yet?_ asked the navy dragonet warily.

 _You're interesting,_ she explained, smiling. _Why wouldn't I want to know you?_

Besides, Teal seemed to have taken an immediate liking to the skittish blue dragon, and Teal's first impressions were nearly always right. That meant Pufferfish was worth keeping around, even if he didn't always listen to orders.

Puff didn't respond to that. Orca doubted he knew how, and by the time he figured it out, the moment to reply had passed. But she wasn't ready to drop the conversation.

 _So what do you like to do?_ she pressed on.

He hesitated, as if worried that she had some kind of ulterior motive or that she would laugh at his answer. _I play the cello,_ he said at last, _or at least I did before I came here. It's not really possible to make music underwater._

Orca tilted her head to one side, intrigued. _I've never really listened to music._

 _I doubt most SeaWings have,_ he responded, looking disappointed.

 _You'll have to play for me sometime,_ she said, genuinely curious. _I like learning new things; I'd like to learn about musical instruments. Not that I'll probably be able to tell if your music is very good. You could play your absolute worst and I'd probably just applaud because I'd assume that's what the cello is supposed to sound like._

He stifled his laugh, as if worried she might not be joking. She grinned in response to assure him that she was. Although she did sort of mean it, too.

 _So what else do you like to do?_ she prompted.

 _I guess I enjoy cooking,_ he said. _Since I work in the kitchens._

 _I like to work with sharp objects, too,_ Orca said. _But I sculpt stone, not food._

 _I know,_ Puff responded. _I've seen some of your work._

 _What did you think of it?_

 _Your sculptures? They're… nice._ The pause was just a little too long.

 _You can tell me how you really feel,_ she said. _I don't bite._

Puff looked like he very much doubted that.

 _Honestly?_ he said. _They're kind of creepy. I feel like they're watching me._

 _See? That's a compliment! And you actually meant it this time._

 _I… didn't realize that was a compliment,_ Puff admitted. _You like scaring dragons?_

 _It can be highly entertaining sometimes,_ Orca said, laughing. _But that's not what I meant. If you feel like my statues are watching you, that means they seem real. Alive. And that's the biggest compliment you can give an artist._

 _Oh,_ he said, looking thoughtful. _That's interesting._

Orca was pleased to see that most of the nervousness had left his expression. He seemed more genuinely intrigued by her than frightened now.

She studied his back as they swam onward. It was useful to know that Puff wasn't experienced in Aquatic. She could see it easily now that Teal had pointed it out, but she wouldn't have thought of that on her own, at least not right away.

It wasn't much longer before the current they'd been riding ended and they were deposited at the entrance to another, smaller reef. By studying the shape of it, Orca could tell that it was technically still a part of the Deep Palace, but not one she had ever been to before. It didn't look at all familiar. She hadn't expected to remember it, but she was sort of surprised she didn't feel any kind of attachment to the place where she'd taken her first breath. There was no deep-seated recognition, no feeling of warmth.

 _Is this it?_ she asked the others.

They seemed equally at a loss. There was nothing about this section of the Deep Palace that screamed _eggs hatch here!_ , at least not from the outside.

 _I guess we should just go inside,_ said Puff. _And hopefully some guard will realize we're lost, take pity on us, and point us in the right direction._

 _Right,_ said Orca, flicking her tail decisively. _Let's go._

As they swam into this unfamiliar part of the palace, Teal gazed up at the ceiling. He looked absentminded, but Orca knew that he was having some kind of deep thoughts beneath the surface. He always was, even if she could never tell what those deep thoughts were. Her youngest brother had always been a bit of an enigma, even to Orca herself, who understood him best out of anyone in the kingdom.

Thankfully, the building had a very simple structure. There was only one entrance, which led to a straight hallway with only a single doorway at the opposite end. A pair of guards were stationed on either side of the doorway; they nodded respectfully to Orca as she approached. One also nodded tentatively to Teal, who only blinked back.

Pufferfish hesitated in the doorway, as if unsure about whether he was supposed to still be there, but Orca curled her tail around his wrist and pulled him through with her. He gave her a confused look, which she deliberately ignored.

Everyone else had already gathered in the Hatchery. They turned to look at Orca and her entourage as they swam in. Gill and Gyre looked relieved, while Brine wore his resting smug expression, and Coral seemed a bit put out for some reason.

Was it because she'd been worried that Orca and Teal might miss the hatching? Or was it because she'd noticed Puff and disapproved of Orca's bringing a mere servant with her to such an important family gathering?

It was probably the latter, but it would be easy enough to pretend it was the former.

 _Sorry I'm late,_ Orca said, adding an apologetic tone modifier that she didn't really mean. _I didn't know where the Hatchery was. But Pufferfish here helped Teal and I find it. Puff, these are my parents, Queen Coral and King Gill, and my brothers, Brine and Gyre. Oh, and my cousin, Moray._ She gestured to each of them in turn; she almost hadn't noticed Moray, who was lurking by the far wall of the Hatchery as if she was as unenthused about this as Orca herself. _And those are the eggs, obviously._

Brine gave her a puzzled look, as if he didn't understand what she was trying to accomplish by introducing Puff to their family. Orca only smiled. Her older brother and their parents could be snobbish at times, without even realizing it, but ultimately she was the heir. She could associate with whoever she wanted. And they'd understand that later, if she and Puff started to spend more time together.

She hoped they would. It was refreshing being around someone who didn't know exactly how to be polite. Dragons who didn't were the only ones she could count on to be completely honest with her. And honest dragons were rare and valuable.

 _So I have to make him like me,_ she surmised to herself. _This should be interesting._

She'd never really had to win anyone over before. All the dragons she'd met either liked her or feared her, and she had never particularly cared which. Perhaps this would be a good opportunity to find out if she could follow in Blister's charismatic footsteps.

 _Thank you for escorting our children here,_ said Gill, nodding politely. He didn't think Puff was important, but he always treated dragons like they were anyway.

 _My pleasure, Your Majesty,_ responded Puff, bowing deeply.

Brine looked mollified by the gesture. Coral merely turned away, as if keeping Puff out of sight would banish him from her mind as well.

Everyone returned their attention to the eggs, which were positioned in a way that seemed to intentionally build suspense. Each egg had its own nest, which was large and bowl-shaped, so that the egg couldn't roll itself out with the vigorous motions of hatching. The nests were elevated off the floor of the hatchery, which was completely covered in steam vents to warm the water in the room.

The eggs were fidgeting in their nests. Every once in a while one gave a particularly fierce wiggle that attracted everyone's attention, only to relax again a moment later. They seemed to be competing to see which one could make the most dramatic arrival.

It looked like this would take a while longer.

Orca folded her wings back.

 _I can't wait to have more brothers,_ she said to Coral. _I can teach them everything I know. Maybe I'll make one of them into a miniature, male version of me._

 _Well, you're only getting one more brother today,_ her mother responded, looking amused. _The other two will be sisters, and they'll need you to show them the best way to be a princess. I know you'll be a great role model._

Orca didn't respond.

 _I've never had a sister before,_ she realized, unsure of how to feel about that. She was startled to realize that the idea had never occurred to her. She'd always been the only daughter, and she'd somehow assumed she always would be. _Sisters are just like brothers, right? Except… they can also take the throne. And they'll probably also_ want _the throne, regardless of any sister who was already here first. I have magic, so they probably wouldn't be able to defeat me, but… what if one of them turns out to be an animus, too? Then they'd be extremely dangerous. Maybe even stronger than me. I could actually lose a challenge from another animus._

Suddenly, she felt a lot less secure. Danger crept along her spine.

 _Aren't they beautiful?_ said Coral, interrupting her silent thoughts. Orca's mother was gazing proudly at the gently rocking eggs. One had started to crack, but the other two still seemed content to take their time. For now.

Orca obligingly nodded, privately coming to her own decision.

If her future sisters really were a danger to her, then she'd simply have to eliminate that danger. Right now, she was powerful and they were powerless. But they wouldn't be powerless for much longer. She had to act now.

 _Can I touch them?_ she asked. _They're just so… fascinating._

Coral beamed, apparently pleased by Orca's big sisterly instincts. _You can as long as you're gentle with them, darling. And I know I don't have to worry about that._

Orca swam up to the two female eggs, one pale blue and the other pea green, resting one set of webbed talons on each of them. They were smooth to the touch, and warm.

Orca had never seen anything in her precious scrolls about animus powers being able to enchant dragons, which made sense—they weren't really objects. But eggs were a different story. Perhaps she couldn't do anything with the egg as a whole, but she couldn't come up with any reason why she wouldn't be able to put a spell on their shells.

She didn't have a lot of time to think it out, but she was careful to keep her wording specific so that the spell wouldn't go awry. It had to be straightforward enough that she would see the results she wanted, but vague enough that those results couldn't be pinned down as magic. She couldn't afford to rush.

Uncertainty would not make her reckless.

Still, within a few moments, Orca was ready.

 _I enchant these eggshells,_ she thought, _to curse the unhatched dragonets inside so that their lives will be full of misfortunate accidents, which will ultimately cause both of them to die before they reach adulthood or challenge for the throne._

For the first time, she felt the spell she'd casted take effect—although the Hatchery was very warm, a sudden chill ran beneath her scales. Her whole body stiffened for a few seconds, as if her own muscles were momentarily beyond her control.

Heart pounding, Orca did her best to shake off the ominous feeling.

She couldn't help but feel uneasy about what she'd just done. However useful this spell would be, perhaps it was still too big of an enchantment to cast. It might have just taken something crucial away from her, something she'd never get back.

But… she also felt safer. No sister could really threaten her now.

 _This has to be the smartest choice,_ she thought. _Right?_

She backed away from the eggs and waited.

 _I remember when you and your brothers hatched,_ Coral recalled fondly, oblivious to Orca's actions and the resulting shift in her mood. _You've all grown up so much since then, but somehow it still seems like it was just yesterday!_

Teal, on the other talon, gave Orca a concerned look. She shook her head slightly and he blinked back, understanding that she didn't want to talk about it. Even if she did get the urge to confess her worries, Teal wouldn't understand. She'd never told him, or anyone, that she was an animus, and she didn't intend to.

Orca glanced sideways at the queen, curious. She, of course, could not remember anything about the earliest part of her life, but she wanted to see where her mother was going with this. Had Coral looked down at her newly hatched daughter and been able to see, even then, how much potential she had?

One day (one day soon), Orca would be queen.

 _The four of you were always together,_ her mother reminisced, _roughhousing and playing games of your own invention. You were always much closer than I was with any of my siblings. In a way, you were like a bunch of MudWings!_

 _I was worried about Teal, because he didn't learn to talk until he was almost a year old. Your father and I were convinced that he never would. But Orca, you were always with him, talking to him. You never seemed to think of him as being any different from you and Gyre and Brine. And eventually, he started talking back. You taught him how to speak, when no one else could get a word out of him._

 _I did?_ Orca asked. She didn't remember that at all.

She glanced at Teal, wondering what he made of Coral's story, but he just blinked, unconcerned. Even though she'd forgotten all about teaching him how to talk, it was more likely than not that her brother had not forgotten.

 _You don't give up on dragons,_ he said. _That's why you're my favorite sister._

Orca laughed. _Teal, I'm your only sister._

He only shrugged, as if that point were debatable.

 _Not for long,_ Coral agreed, nodding towards the eggs.

Orca didn't respond. _Yes, I might have sisters soon,_ she thought, flicking her tail with grim satisfaction. _But thanks to my spell, that's what really won't be for long._

Just as she thought that, the first egg gave shuddered violently. A moment later, it split open, revealing the only male dragonet of the hatching. A shard of eggshell clung to the top of his head, but he shook himself vigorously and it floated away.

The pea green dragonet looked just like a miniature version of Gill. All of the bigger dragons immediately began to crowd around him, cooing in Aquatic.

He was still tiny, but Orca could already tell that he'd probably grow up to be big and stocky like Gyre and her father. The familial resemblance was charming.

 _Hello, brother,_ she said in Aquatic, smiling.

He looked up at all of the watching dragons with curious eyes.

Coral swam closer and scooped the newborn up in her talons. _Isn't he perfect?_

Orca nodded in agreement. She wasn't worried about him.

There was a loud cracking sound, and she turned her head just in time to see the other green egg collapse. The dragonet inside squeaked triumphantly.

She was the same color as the male, but a little smaller, with pale blue eyes instead of green. She stretched her tiny wings, seeming to marvel at the wide open world she'd discovered outside of her eggshell. She stumbled forward, already eager to explore.

Coral smiled down at the dragonet, as if this new daughter was the best thing she had ever seen. She wrapped her tail around the newborn in a gentle embrace, careful to keep the narwhal horn at the tip out of reach. _Welcome to the world, little one._

Orca tried not to feel jealous, which was absurd. She had never once cared about her mother's attention. So what if Coral replaced her with a new favorite? That would only make killing Coral in a challenge for the throne even easier.

 _I was here first,_ she thought. _I'm the heir. These dragonets are nobodies._

She turned her attention to the last egg instead, not wanting to look at her mother's radiant expression. It was rocking back and forth, and a small grunting sound came from within, as if the dragonet was frustrated by the confinement of her eggshell.

Suddenly, the egg rolled towards Orca, pitching itself over the edge of the nest. She instinctively held out her talons to stop it, only for the shell to splinter and the dragonet inside to tumble head-over-heels into her chest. The impact was too small to hurt, but it did startle her. Suddenly she was holding not an egg, but a living dragonet.

She blinked, and saw that the dragonet was looking up at her from upside down, her tiny feet pointing up towards the ceiling and her wings splayed out to both sides. The dragonet's short tail was hanging down in front of her face. Her scales were the same pale blue as the egg had been, her eyes a much darker shade of the same color.

After a moment, the dragonet's round eyes shifted from her older sister to her tail, which she grabbed gleefully between her talons and nibbled on experimentally.

Orca barked a surprised laugh.

 _Strange little creature,_ she said in Aquatic, amused despite herself.

Reaching out, she picked up the dragonet and set it down right side up in the nest. She could easily lift it with one hand; the dragonet weighed less than a paperweight. Once she put it down, it stood up and took a wobbling step towards her.

 _They're all so wonderful,_ said Coral, beaming. _Three perfect dragonets._

 _What are you going to name them?_ asked Gyre.

She paused for a moment, gazing intently at the tiny dragonets in front of her as if they were the only things that mattered. They were all starting to try walking around in their nests. _Gill, what do you think of Swordfish for the male?_

 _That's a wonderful name,_ Orca's father agreed.

The newly-named Swordfish sniffed at his own tail, and then blew a small bubble out of his nostrils. He watched it float up to the ceiling of the hatchery. When it popped, the dragonet let out a delighted squeak, repeating the process.

Orca couldn't help but smile at his antics. She supposed her new brother was the only one she'd grow to care about. He was already starting to win her over. Despite being a tiny, almost mindless creature, he really was quite cute.

 _How about Chartreuse for the green female?_ Gill suggested.

Coral nodded. _Chartreuse. I like it._

Chartreuse peered over the edge of her nest, curiously. She took a step off the edge, and Gyre leapt to catch her before she sank to the bottom of the Hatchery.

 _Be careful,_ he scolded gently. _You'll frighten everyone doing things like that!_

 _She'll be fine,_ said Gill. _The geysers would've prevented it from being too bad of a fall. But it's reassuring to know that the four of you will be looking out for her._

 _Was that my spell already taking effect?_ Orca couldn't help but wonder. _Or is it just that newly-hatched dragonets are naturally clumsy?_

 _What about the last one?_ asked Brine, nodding to the little blue dragonet.

Orca looked down at the dragonet in question. It was now reaching out for her leg with tiny talons. Orca backed away hurriedly. The dragonet squeaked.

Everyone had turned to look at the third dragonet. Brine and Gyre looked amused by how much the hatchling was flustering Orca, while Teal was just curious. He seemed to be fascinated by the little dragonets that had been motionless eggs only a few days before. Orca wondered what was going on inside his head.

Even Pufferfish was hiding a smile. Orca flicked him with her tail.

Gill laughed, a cloud of bubbles streaming from his snout. _It seems she's already taken a liking to you, Orca. And she's certainly an adventurous one._

 _Yeah, yeah,_ said Orca, shooing at the dragonet with her wings as she edged away. _I like her too, but that doesn't mean I want her climbing all over me._

It was a lie. She couldn't care less about the tiny creature. All that mattered was that it wasn't an animus and wasn't going to steal the throne that was rightfully hers.

But she couldn't let anyone know how much she resented the idea of having sisters. They'd be gone soon enough. All Orca had to do was wait patiently for her spell to take effect. And she was a master of patience; she always had been.

 _She looks like she's made out of clear water,_ Coral said. _How about Lucid?_

Gill voiced agreement. _Perfect. Swordfish, Chartreuse, and Lucid._

Now that the main event of the hatching was over, everyone began to remark about how lovely all three of the dragonets were and how exciting it would be to have new members of their family. Coral was commenting on how this dragonet had inherited her nose and this one had her grandmother's ears and that one's tail looked just like her father's. Gill scooped up an already sleeping Swordfish and cradled the dragonet in his arms. Brine and Gyre, who were usually nearly opposites, were chatting excitedly about what the dragonets' personalities might be like, and all the things they wanted to teach them. Even Teal seemed totally absorbed by the new dragonets, flicking the tip of his tail and watching attentively as Chartreuse pounced on it.

Pufferfish and Moray were still there, but no one payed them any attention. They were all fixated on the newest prince and princesses. Puff was looking down awkwardly at his talons. Orca wondered distractedly if she was imagining the frosty look on Moray's face as she watched Lucid bat at stray bubbles.

Meanwhile, Orca's spell was running through her mind on repeat.

 _Don't dwell on it now,_ she told herself. _It's done. It's as if they're already dead._

Every once in a while, someone would say something to Orca. She wasn't paying much attention, but she smiled and nodded and agreed. No one noticed how distracted she was, too caught up in the excitement of watching the new dragonets.

No one except Puff.

 _Are you okay_? he asked in Aquatic.

Orca shook herself. _Yes, I'm fine. It's just a lot to take in._

No one would ever know how she really felt.

And no one would ever know what she'd done.


End file.
